Merchants Say Street Preachers Hurt Sales

A Deland Business Group Is Complaining About Religious Activists Downtown. City Hall Refuses To Intervene.

April 5, 1997|By Gwyneth K. Shaw of The Sentinel Staff

DELAND — The crusade to revitalize the downtown shopping district is bumping heads with a more timeless cause.

The Downtown Business Council, a board of merchants organized under the auspices of the Main Street DeLand Association, is complaining about religious activists downtown. City Hall, however, is sticking to its constitutional guns and refusing to crack down.

Sandy Chavez, co-chair of the business council and an owner of the Our Hearts in Country shop on Woodland Boulevard, said several activists take over all four corners of the intersection near her shop and are driving customers away from DeLand's resurgent downtown.

At the heart of the council's problem, she said, is a group that turns out every Friday afternoon at Woodland Boulevard and New York Avenue, passing out religious tracts. One of the group's members also shouts Scripture to pedestrians and motorists. The van the group travels in is covered with references to Jesus - and of hell for those who do not repent.

''I understand they've been doing this for quite a few years, but when they first started downtown was half-empty,'' Chavez said. ''Now that we're full and we are getting customers down here on Friday evening, now we're seeing how it is disturbing customers that would be coming in.''

The demonstrators were undeterred Friday afternoon by the stir. The group's leader, Bill McEntyre, said he is following the teachings of Christ - holding a sign that says ''Only Jesus Saves'' on one side and ''No Hope in the Pope'' on the other. McEntyre said the group is not affiliated with any church.

''In Luke, Jesus says to go out in the highways and the hedges to propel them to come in so my work can be fulfilled,'' he said. ''We're Christians, so we're supposed to fulfill what Jesus wants us to do.

''This is our right. The Constitution says no government will prohibit the practice or preachings of a religion.''

Lottie Hall, who spends her days sitting in front of the Main Street Center on Woodland Boulevard handing out Jehovah's Witness literature, is also a target of the business council. Hall, who has a handicapped parking permit, keeps a prime parking space all day and leaves out a donation box that is ''unsightly and offensive,'' according to a letter to City Manager Wayne Sanborn written by Chavez and council co-chair Teresa Rushlow.

''It's a parking issue, and then she leaves a cardboard box sitting on old tin cans sitting out on the sidewalks at all times,'' Chavez said. ''We're trying to redo downtown, and that's a really bad eyesore.''

What the business council wants the city to do, Chavez said, is simply nudge the offending parties away from thriving businesses. The group understands the First Amendment, she said, but thinks it doesn't have to be exercised at a cost to others.

''We just want some kind of ordinance written, where maybe they can have their First Amendment rights, but in a certain place,'' Chavez said. ''But not where it impedes the customers coming into the stores.''

Sanborn, however, said he will have none of it. He wrote a letter back to the business council, saying that as long as there are no laws being broken - or unless the City Commission decides to get into the fray - he won't take any action.

''It's a constitutionally protected, First Amendment issue,'' Sanborn said. ''I've spoken with (City Attorney) Mark Zimmerman and he said we were in his opinion accurately reflecting the facts of this matter.''